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Winemaker stories

Whose *Wine* is it? Meet Lena Endesfelder from Weingut Endesfelder, Mosel

3 women, one winery, one passion

The wine producer of the month is the 28-year-old Lena Endesfelder. She studied viticulture and oenology in Geisenheim. Lena grew up on the family-run winery and, as it often is the case on wine estates, she helped there since she was a child.

Lena’s life turned out differently than she thought as her father died due to an accident in the vineyards approximately 11 years ago. At that moment she decided to continue the work of her father with the help of her mother and sister. After finishing her education and her time as German Wine Queen 2017, she has been working full time in the winery, being responsible for the work in the vineyards as well as in the cellar. The experiences while studying and travelling around the world gave her a lot of new ideas about what to change and do better in the winery.


Meet Lena Endesfelder, wine maker

Estate: Weingut Endesfelder

Region: Mosel

Village: Mehring, close to Trier

Focus: main grape variety Riesling, but also Pinot Blanc and Noir, Müller-Thurgau, Kerner as well as some new resistant grape variety Cabernet Blanc

Generation Riesling

Lena is also a member of Germany’s Generation Riesling. GR is a group of educated young winegrowers under the age of 35, which includes around 530 members from various quality wine regions in Germany. It is thus the largest organization of young winegrowers in the world. Founded in 2006, the group members help and co-operate with each other on both national and international level. The group is innovative, dynamic, passionate and willing to experiment. They are also united by quality awareness and ecological values.

Background of the wine estate – the Endesfelder label

The wine estate is founded in 1920, and Lena represents the fourth generation. The label of the wine estate represents the story of the family. The gap between the beginning and the end of the label symbolizes the loss of the father. But also, the start of a new time.

The space in the label represents the ongoing process of finding their new goals. In front of the label you find the emblem, the name of the wine and the estate name. But you can also find the silhouettes of the three women in charge, the mother, the sister and Lena – being the faces and soul of ´Endesfelder´.

The vineyards

The vineyards of the family are located around their hometown Mehring. They have a lot of steep slopes but also some vineyards in the flat.

”I’m very proud of my steep vineyards and it’s my passion to work there. It’s tough work but when we open such a special bottle of wine we know that the work was worth it”, Lena says.

They plant mostly Riesling, but also Pinot Blanc and Noir, Müller-Thurgau, Kerner and some new resistant grape variety Cabernet Blanc.

The work on the vineyards

The wine cultivation is to work together with the nature. Since Lena took over in the winery, they have increasingly changed the processes from conventional to biological viticulture. “We are not certified because in my opinion, there are some factors in the biological wine growing which are not compatible with nature. So we don´t use any insecticides, fungicides or pesticides. We observe our vines and give them what they need” Lena states.

The winery also changed some other steps in their wine production.

“For example, instead of using tetra pack for protecting our small vines from rabbits and other animals, we use reusable net. Our new wine boxes will work without any duct tape. In near future, we will dispense of the plastic capsules on our corked bottles. So there are a lot of things in progress and in my head there are a lot more…“ Lena explains.

The wines

The wine estate categorises the wines they produce in four levels.

1. variety of grapes

In this category you find everything but Riesling. They all have less acidity, are easy to drink and have a screw cap.

2. Riesling (Ortswein)

Here you find our Riesling wines for every day. They have a refreshing acidity and are perfect to relax after a stressfull day. These wines also have a screw cap.

3. Riesling from the steep slopes (Lagenwein)

The grapes of these wines only grow in the steep slopes, are picked by hand and are not mechanized to 100%. It’s the signature of Mosel and closed by natural cork.

4. Sparkling

The sparkling wine is made by bottle fermentation. The grapes grow in the steep slopes. The ´Puccini´ is a wine with carbon acidity and very good to drink on hot summer days. Our ´Spatz´ (in English little bird) has no alcohol. It’s grape juice with carbon acidity and very popular with pregnant women and kids.

Lena Endesfelder visited Finland in the beginning of November 2022, taking part at the Generation Riesling -Event in Helsinki.

Tutustu lähemmin www.weingut-endesfelder.de tai katso Lenan haastattelu Suomen vierailun ajalta:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDoTT5NIhIlJZiIIh0hVrpQ

Tutustu Generation Rieslingiin www.generationriesling.de

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